An Initiative to Build Human Capacities Among the Future Leaders of Palestine

In my book Emerge! I spent a considerable amount of time articulating the importance of understanding the local intelligence, what motivates people, their value preferences and worldviews. If the US is to be respected as an effective facilitator of change, we have to understand this social science concept. Below is my description of it from my book Emerge!
Indigenous Intelligence is one of the most crucial elements of the MEMEtocracy model. Throughout his career, Beck has emphasized the importance of working with people who know the culture of the country they are working in. It wasn’t until I teamed up with him to create the CHE-Mideast that I discovered the need to further define his thinking on this particular subject. For someone who was born in Lebanon, I noticed certain events, behaviors, and phenomena in Middle Eastern cultures that were missed by most of my highly intelligent Western friends. This pattern of things lost or missed in translation kept repeating in higher frequency as our work progressed, making it necessary for me to conduct research into this area.
I began to develop my model after much analysis of field data and assessment of why development problems persist in spite of all the good intentions behind foreign aid and the noble work of non-governmental organizations.
Often the term “indigenous” is associated with native minorities and cultures of the developing world that have been marginalized by progress. In this context, I was looking to redefine the meaning of indigenous to include the “unique value-systems expression” of the complex intelligences within each culture. Those indigenous intelligences can offer their countries, and the world community creative solutions that meet the challenges facing our world today.
As I looked into the field of social sciences, nothing identified the general subject of local cultural knowledge as a separate and distinct field of intelligence or an area worthy of acknowledgment with its own unique characteristics. An Internet search for the term revealed results for a business entity organized to provide Native American veterans with jobs in consulting services. After spending many days in research and failing to find any definitive writings on the subject, I turned to the work of Howard Gardner as a last resort.
Gardner, a Harvard developmental psychologist, had pioneered the field of multiple intelligences. In his 1983 book Theory of Multiple Intelligences, he outlined a total of eight types of intelligences that included the original measure of cognitive intelligence. Since then, Gardner has updated his original findings to include many applications, but at the time I conducted my research this pioneer had not included the field of local cultural intelligence as a factor in his influential research the way Beck and I viewed it.
Based on my field experience and the extensive research I conducted in the areas of social psychology and world cultures, I came to define “indigenous intelligence” as follows:
Indigenous Intelligence (II) is the multidimensional capacity of an individual or a group in a specific society to interpret its value-system’s complexity to non-natives. It is represented in a cross section of any given society, from the Millennial Generation to women, community leaders and elders of the tribe. Unlike other intelligences, it provides rich and actionable culturally fit answers, to why certain individuals or groups act in certain ways. Why do they have certain preferences, priorities, beliefs and worldviews and why solutions need to be tailored for their specific value-structures.
Indigenous Intelligence informs governance by assessing the life conditions of the people and the challenges they face. II paints a more complete picture of the obstacles facing stakeholders in a society, not just the elite and the privileged. It always finds opportunities in the challenges facing a certain society and finds a silver lining through creative thinking. Economic development that is informed by II places the uniqueness of people’s capacities into a long-term development scheme that makes the culture move at an accelerated pace while building resilience and self-reliance at every stage.

Indigenous Intelligence Experts (IIEs)
Indigenous Intelligence is manifested in individuals as well as groups that are experts who exhibit the following characteristics:

• They are most likely natives of the territory who speak the language, know the customs, and understand the culture and the many subcultures within it.
• Their thinking is an open-system with high cognitive abilities. They can speak with ease to tribal leaders in their same colloquial tongue as well as to a national or Western politician and be fully aware of the value-structure distinctions of what is being said.
• He/she is shaped by the first-hand experience of his/her own transition from being zealots and flamethrowers. He/she has earned his/her dues in becoming a conciliator and pragmatist who thinks about future generations and their well being, rather than having a need for revenge, instant gratification, and traditional allegiances.
• IIEs, instinctively discern the complex patterns of their society by identifying developmental gaps and allowing for the process to evolve naturally. This is in stark contrast of how the West paints other societies with broad strokes through their people’s own prism of values, missing much of the local nuances.
• They understand the value-systems meaning of history through first-hand experience and can help Western organizations become more efficient in their fieldwork.
• They understand the complexity and the uniqueness of the indigenous challenges that brought the culture to its current status of desolation.
• They’re strategic and systemic in their thinking and believe in efforts that can be sustainable and resilient for generations to come.
• They look at Western organizations’ objectives for peace and prosperity and help them channel their efforts in order not to offend local stakeholders with historic grievances, while at the same time providing culturally-honed plans for distributing resources where they’re most needed.
• They are servant leaders who realize that functional alignment with the needs of their society is at the top of their agenda.

IIEs open the door to a culture from the inside in societies that would otherwise be hesitant to disclose any information to outsiders. They can move freely through the various value systems within their culture, knowing how to uncover the challenges facing the culture and repair the expression of every local vMEME (Value Systems Meme). In parts of the Middle East that have seen war and have gone through the Arab Spring, many IIEs gain respect due to their activism and sacrifice. At times these people served time in jail for their views and actions. The rest of the culture witnessed with admiration their transformation from tribal and feudal lords to pragmatic leaders and conciliators. They live in two worlds and cater to the traditional needs of the tribe while expressing with clarity and vision, the future needs of their nation.
In an intra-conflict they are the ones who most understand the different positions within their own party or clan because they shared that same journey. When it comes to inter-conflict issues, they understand the motivation and value systems of the enemy through pragmatic lenses, and they interpret the actions and decision making of their opponents through strategic thinking.

Nafiz Al Rifae Integral Design Architect (IDA)

IIEs become the primary source for information in creating what we call Indigenous Design. The concept of Indigenous Design emerged at the same time when I was doing research on the Indigenous Intelligence concept. Because IIEs bring a richer and more resilient perspective to our attention, the nature of what we design has to reflect the uniqueness of the culture. This data becomes the blueprint that informs the design scheme that is specific to each society. It defines the content of each development program based on local need, and made more sustainable by the global knowledge of Integral Design Architects (IDAs). Indigenous Design is the fundamental component that makes the MEMEtocracy blueprint actionable.
In creating the blueprint for MEMEtocracy IIEs are the primary source of information for the Integral Design Architects who chart the large-scale scheme for the culture. It is only through the data that the IIEs gather from their societies that a large scale design expert can support a Seventh-Level Yellow politician or business leader to design functional solutions and create open systems for Purple, Red, Blue, and Orange. This is the uniqueness of the Indigenous Design approach. Data on local cultural trends collected by IIEs become memes that determine the indigenous content of every vMEME (Value Systems Meme). This, in turn, determines the meme stack of the entire society for which we are designing a functional system for governance. While IDAs can work in any given culture and continue to provide the big picture design, the presence of IIEs is an integral part of the MEMEtocracy framework. They are the only ones who understand the mindsets and belief systems of their own culture.

By: Elza S. Maalouf, President and co-founder of CHE Mideast and author of the upcoming book: Emerge; A New Paradigm on Conflict Resolution

Introduction

The Arab Spring continues its bloody rumble through different parts of the Middle East. It has toppled dictators and democratically elected governments alike. It has shattered the dreams of those who thought democracy was just a few tweets away and has fueled the ambitions of Islamists to rise to power. Would this so-called spring blossom into a mature manifestation of modern day nations or would it lead to a deep freeze that will continue to marginalize and radicalize the region for decades to come? Would these revolutions end in democratic regimes that will enable the Arab world to join the world community of Nations away from terrorism and with respect for human rights?

It is important to point that more than three years have passed since the start of the Arab Spring and no visible change in how people are governed in the rebellious countries has taken place. A closer examination of the intricate dynamics in the region might uncover a narrative that is not as simple as just ousting the dictator who’s in charge. Western leaders not aware of the Memetic structures and historic patterns in the Middle East might conclude that the outcome of Arab revolutions will resemble that of other revolutions in the world. Brief History of the Middle East

Today’s dictatorships and autocratic rule in the Arab world are symptomatic of greater hurdles the region must overcome as it seeks more advanced developmental stages. Indeed the cultural development map of he Middle East looks vastly different than that of Europe and the West. While Europe fought for religious reformation, and the entire West was fully engulfed in the industrial revolution, experimenting with science, building institutions and developing their value systems based on scientific inquiry, the Middle East faded into the background. It seems that somewhere along the line, Arab cultural development process was arrested. This is the same culture that gave the world science, numerals, mathematics, and astronomy. What were the factors that blocked the continued emergence of this region? And what internal and external conditions contributed to its prolonged entrapment?In the history of the region there is a number of critical phases of development that should be examined in order to provide a better understanding of how the current developments will play out. Prior to the dawn of Islam, tribal conquest was at its pinnacle and warrior kings dominated the vast nomadic deserts. The rise of the Prophet Mohammad ushered in a new religion that imposed order upon these tribes through a Godly guidance and a lifestyle adherence to certain rituals that provided a guide to daily living. For a few centuries after the establishment of Islam science, philosophy and astronomical exploration thrived wherever the values of Islam were present. But, much like Christianity that was adopted by the Romans to impose passive measures on the masses and give the growing religion a cover of conquest, the Ottomans took on the mantle of Islam to quell its growing influence and spread through the cover of religion throughout their empire.

The ruling style of the Ottomans could be summed up in one sentence and that is the exploitation of people and resources in the region. For close to six hundred years there was no national platform that would have concentrated movements towards upward emergence. At its zenith the Ottoman Empire covered a vast geographic area that spread from the Arabian Gulf to southeastern Europe with influence as far as Spain and North Africa. By the mid 1800’s the Ottoman unaware of the shortcomings of their patchy and decentralized political platform, could not maintain control over some of their territories. The industrialization of European culture helped them gain military superiority over the Ottomans by adopting technological advancements into modern warfare while the Ottomans struggled to gain a competitive technological edge. It took less than 50 years for the Ottomans to lose their vast territory. This hollow and obsolete structure of power came crashing down by the end of WWI reducing the size of the empire to modern-day Turkey and leaving an entire region of tribes with little skills for modern self-reliance in the hands of Western Colonialists. The West, primarily England and France placed the region under colonial mandates for a few decades and assumed that once a few charismatic leaders had an understanding of how Western democracies operate, the region will be in good hands. Accordingly, the Middle East was carved into arbitrary countries with artificial boundaries that had no alignment to tribal or clannish allegiance but favored the colonialists’ best interest. With these newly formed countries recognized by The League of Nations and later the UN, the territories were left to their own devices after a relatively short period of administrative guardianship ignoring thousands of years of tribal and ancestral history in the process. Initially, Western powers appointed kings thought to have historic ties to the land to set the region on the road to progress. As these mandates came to an end, kingdoms started to crop up all over the Middle East. Tunisia had King Mohammad VIII, Libya had King Muhammad Idris as-Senussi, Egypt had King Farouk, and the pattern of arbitrary kingdom-ships spread through the rest of the region including Syria, Iraq and Alhijaz, which is now Saudi Arabia.To the tribal masses in the region, the imposition of monarchies by the west was paramount to a return to Ottoman rule. The monarchs simply were not in step with the changing needs of their subjects. In the 1940’s and 50’s a new meme was sweeping through the tribal and feudal masses on the Arab street. They were becoming spellbound by the Arab intellectual elite who preached Stalin-style Marxism and the powerful effect it had on toppling monarchies. Several charismatic leaders making false promises for better lives were able to capture the hearts and minds of the people and in very short order overthrew the monarchs. The results were the absolute dictatorships of Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Zein al Abeddine and Moamar Al Ghaddafi. The circumstances that further arrested emergence of the region was the discovery of oil before the development of institutions and the creation of economic policies that would have properly distributed the wealth from oil revenues. In comparing the differences between a less developed culture of an oil rich country in the Middle East to another oil-rich country with developed institutions like Norway one can see the vast difference in how money is perceived through the prism of value systems. In the former, the money went to extended royal circles, the merchant class, dictators and their cronies, while in the latter, no more than 6% of oil revenue is put into the economy and the rest is invested in a National wealth fund to support future generations of Norwegians. It was only recently that a visionary ruler like King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia took on the mantle of creating a long-term vision for a national development program that goes beyond the age of oil.

Manifesto of a Dictator. In order to understand how effective the current revolutions will be, it is paramount to assess the damage and the impressions that these decades of dictatorships left on the collective Psyche of Arab the masses. The Modus Operandi of a Middle Eastern dictator went something like this:

First: Convince the people that the primary reason for their misery is the presence of the State of Israel and build a regional political alliance that confirms the myth.This belief was pounded into the psyche of every man woman and child on the Arab street for more than 5 decades. Projecting the collective misery on the “evil enemy” worked well as a relief valve through which pent up anger was channeled. This ideology was spread further by firebrand Imams who with the help of their leaders propagated the US as greatest evil adding to their repression by blindly supporting Israel. It is worth noting that the Arabs collectively have abused the Palestinian cause and used it for political and monetary gain more than anyone else. Palestinian refugees were kept in dire conditions in camps by their own leaders and Arab politicians. As this ideology festered into a pathology every extremist wanting to start an Al-Qaeda-like chapter from Detroit to the Philippines invoked the Palestinian cause.

Second: Suspend most if not all civil liberties and impose emergency laws under the guise that the government must be able to insure peace and that must be in absence of any right to due process.These controls instilled horror into any free thinkers who dared to speak against the regimes as they were hauled off to prison never to be heard from again. The governments made sure that everyone knew about the fate of these so-called infidels and the fear of speaking out spread at a systemic level.

Third: Feed the masses carefully selected propaganda and inject it into an antiquated educational system that serves to praise the leader for preserving Arab dignity and safety and warn against the adoption of Western values.Of all dictatorial policies, this was the most damaging to the development of long term capacities of Arab culture as education and the expansion of the mind was a dangerous thing in the eyes of the dictator. The UNDP reported in 2006 that the region suffers from rates of illiteracy that are as high as 80%. On average the entire Arab world produces less than one tenth of the scientific papers per capita compared to developed countries. The basic institutions that build human capacities simply do not exist.

Fourth: Build a military and a ruling class whose primary goal is to keep the dictator in power.This was a common and very pervasive policy that insured the anchoring of the regime especially if a country is rich in natural resources or receives foreign aid. In most cases, absent a national development plan, working for the regime was the only opportunity to earn a good living. The knowledge that this privilege could be taken away at the first sign of descent kept many loyal to the regime for many generations and created an internal division that might prolong the demise of a dictator when such time comes. This was seen in Tahrir Square and is being repeatedly played out daily on the streets of Damascus, Tripoli, Yemen and Bahrain.

Anatomy of the Arab Spring

The unawareness for the need to innovate was one of the biggest flaws in a Middle Eastern dictator’s platform. The tapping of phone lines and eavesdropping on conversations were things the young generations easily outsmarted. These young men and women, children of Google, Facebook, Skype and Yahoo, were communicating with people all over the world, exchanging love songs and freedom filled ideas and dreams. The barrier of fear that their parents experienced with dictators had disappeared with Gen Y and the Millennia generation as they were able to witness and experience freedom over cyberspace. The news of young Abou Azizi setting himself on fire in Tunisia created the perfect storm that mobilized young people from Tunisia and Egypt and on to Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Iraq.Political experts and analysts have offered many trajectories on how the Arab spring will evolve without having the deep understanding of the underlying cultural tectonic plates that are at play. A factor that is rarely considered by Western governments and political advisers are the Memetic profiles of the Arabs that are rising in these cultures which were shaped by the chaotic, repressive and passive history of the region. Dr. Don E. Beck, a renowned developmental theorist points out that the next natural step after revolution is the disintegration of a culture. This is based on many years of research and experience in global hot spots. As events unfold Beck’s views become more confirmed. Yes, indeed the short-term future of the region might not look as bright and euphoric as Tahrir Square looked on the day Mubarak stepped down, but a few decades from now elements of uniquely Arab democratic institutions will be emerging.Today, more than 2 years have passed after Ghaddafi death, Libya has become a hotbed for Al Qaeda factions from all over the region. very little provides a sense of direction on Libya’s road to democracy. Are these rebels capable or ready to produce a democratic Constitution that will replace the Green book, Ghaddafi’s bible? His ouster was a good start on the path to organizing and structuring Libyan society, which is now centered in tribal and exploitative value-systems. Since cultures cannot skip a developmental stage they have to go through the pangs of nation building to raise themselves to a place where everyone is equal under the law.For Syria the patterns of emergence are becoming even more violent than Libya, especially that Assad has gained favor with Western powers by agreeing to the dismantlement of chemical weapons and regaining the upper hand in the war. Still, NATO does not want to meddle with Syria’s protector and benefactor, Iran. Military interference could lead to a regional conflict between Shias and Sunnis considering that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah form the Shia Crescent in the region. Assad, the son, so far has followed in the same butcher footsteps of his father and shows no signs of relinquishing power. The collapse of the Syrian regime will have dire ramifications on Lebanon, Jordan and Israel as the only organized movements that can fill the power vacuum is the Muslim Brotherhood which, in Syria, is far more radicalized than it is in Egypt. If Syria should fall into the hands of groups that are deemed terrorists by the West, The issue of refugee resettlement could cause political and social collapse in smaller neighboring countries like Lebanon and Jordan. In Iraq a natural disintegration has taken place a few years after the coalition’s invasion. The Kurds in the north have formed their semi-autonomous state with oil revenues coming to the coffers of the tribal government of the two main tribes, the Talibanis and Barazanis. Baghdad and its surrounding areas are becoming the stronghold for Sunnis, while the south including Basra, and the two main Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbalaa are very much influenced by Iran as they become a Shia stronghold.It is fair to say that the whole region continues the search for new identity, which will take time in order for it to forge a coherent platform. The collective, much like the individual search for identity, must go through the dark night of the soul and that will be a long and painful process.

An Emergence-Prone Manifesto

Fortunately, this is all happening during the age of the Internet where access to knowledge and the help of integrally informed political allies can speed things along the road to establishing viable and productive Arab states. In light of these realities and in designing for that profound shift that must take place we at the Center for human Emergence Middle East would outline the following plan of action:

Building a Viable Palestinian State: First and foremost the issue of Israel/Palestine is of critical importance as it occupies a deep place in the collective Arab psyche. When most of these Nations were gaining their independence they came to view Israel as the entity that deprived Palestinians of Nationhood. Right or wrong this is how Israel is viewed in the Arab world. The elements of a Palestine Design Conference on our website outlines a development plan that will put Palestine on the road to independence.

Pursue A Stratified Approach to Arab Democracy: Based on principles of what we call Natural Design. We can accomplish this by pursuing the following 3 objectives:

1. Conduct a region-wide study of the profiles of the citizens in the country seeking democracy. This step starts by assessing each individual country’s history, religion, topography, and cultural evolution. Who are the Egyptians, the Tunisians, the Libyans and the Syrians etc..? How have the historic events mentioned in this article shaped their cultural evolution? What is their psychological makeup?

2. Identifying each country’s zones of synergy: These are the respective sources of national wealth, be it natural resources or human capital, active or dormant. This will form the basis for a viable private sector that can provide jobs that fit the landscape and various capacities of the citizens. From building cement factories and designing sustainable agricultural models for laborers to creating the most advanced hi-tech research and development companies.

3. Designing Forms of Governance that work. This will be the painstaking process that will take years to evolve into a coherent platform for governance. Now we can talk about what form of democracy fits those citizens who live in such dynamic landscape, and what form of institutions are needed. Would a centralized form of democracy for this stage of development fit better than a multi-party democracy? Would a monarchy like that of Saudi Arabia with varying degrees of openness be a transitional fit for a few decades? All this should happen with an enlightened co-leadership that can create an overarching goal for a patriotic national cause that brings forth the state into the community of nations and that Shia, Sunni and Christians alike within that nation can rally behind.

Alter US Foreign Policy and base it on Natural Design. A bold declaration in new US foreign policy should be made towards making a conscious effort in balancing America’s values and our strategic and economic interests in the region. Sadly, we are faced with a tradition of mistrust towards the United States in the Arab world, as it’s often seen protecting the two things closest to it; oil and Israel. Some of that mistrust and anger is justified and some just stems from the Arab street projecting their aggression onto the West.

Align with and Empower Regional Nations of Influence: The US and NATO should call on the major power brokers in the region like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco and now Egypt to help facilitate the stage for them to play a more assertive role in brokering political deals in return for security guarantees. This type of regional leadership should be encouraged especially when it comes from another Muslim country on which far enemy projections aren’t made.

Pursue a Systemic Approach to Economic Development:The West should team up with Arab Gulf States to help in the economic development of emerging Arab democracies. Along with the IMF, the World Bank and the respective countries that are being rebuilt, the leaders in charge of these development plans should have an “ecosystem” approach to development that address the causes of corrupt business practices. The Arab Spring is signaling the birth of Industrial Age values that were postponed under the Ottomans but are now emerging simultaneously with the information and knowledge age. This must be promoted through responsible corporate practices, and matched by transparency in governments that believe in their people as their ultimate national strength. To affect real and lasting change, a plan similar to the Marshall Plan in its ambition must be undertaken and tailored to fit the tribal and feudal mindsets that are prevalent in the region.

The Start of the JourneyThe road to cultural emergence in the Middle East is filled with so many false starts initiated by leaders who used their charisma and Iron fists to overcompensate for the lack of complexity or a developmental roadmap for their countries. Today, the long awaited battle for self-determination has begun. This revolution is led by a globalized Arab youth who have answered the call while being fully aware of the consequences. Thus the Hero sets out on a path filled with hope, and all the perils that a culture has to experience on such a mythological journey.

As President Obama visits Israel and the West Bank, we here at The Center for Human Emergence Middle East are encouraged by his words that the Palestinians deserve to have an independent state of their own free from Israeli control. We are also reminded that past negotiations have not brought about the peaceful solutions we all wish to have. In our many years of working on both sides of the conflict we came to the understanding that in order for negotiations to succeed, both sides of the table, -people, politicians and cultures- have to have the internal capacitates to follow through on the negotiated agreements. This realization spoke to us loud and clear in 2005 when we started the Build Palestine Initiative aimed at building the capacities of the Palestinian people, their institutions and their resolve to build a nation through institutions and not through the barrel of a gun.
So, 2 ½ years after the initial posting of our call for President Obama to convene a design summit, we find ourselves urging the administration again to recognize that prudent negotiations will only result in lasting peace after the asymmetry in the capacities of both sides is leveled.

Today, the design conference we called for has taken on a whole new meaning in light of the Arab Spring, and should be used by our Administration as a template to identify the needs of every newly liberated Arab country. Below is the reposting of the initial call for a design conference.

DESIGN CONFERENCE for Palestine/Israel
To break the cycle of failed “Peace Negotiations”
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a collision of “tectonic plates” — deep values system codes — that have created a logjam. It is this underlying logjam that generates continual surface-level blockages that erupt in conflict.
We propose a problem-solving methodology with the power, precision, and complexity to span over human groupings to construct the unique economic and political structures that overarch the mountains and valleys of those unique human groupings.
We need to see the patterns as through a prism — where all the various colors of worldviews are made visible, each with a different “tint” on the world. The goal is to understand the needs of all the mind-sets, so as to begin to craft “full-spectrum” solutions which are fundamentally different from those that a single perspective would offer.
• Capacity to uncover the deeper dynamics within each society, as well as between societies.
• Craft decisions and measure priorities not against the past, nor based on who is responsible for what;
• Avoid the typical problem resolution systems such as majority rule, rule by the elite or by the wealthy, or rule by the so-called experts, or those that have military strength.
• Defuse the ideologies that produce “us vs. them”
• Avoid raising expectations which can be faulted.
• Focus on who the people are who live in the region and what their resources are
• Design a strategy to mesh people, geography, and resources together into a workable solution for all who live in that region.
• Draw upon all of the solutions which are currently available (as well as many that haven’t been thought of yet). We often call these “scaffoldings of solutions”,
• Solutions that involve the whole region: Israel, Syria, Jordan, Palestine
“The issue is less about democracy, rather the question is to design the best structures for meeting the needs of the people as they develop through the stages that are most natural to them; open, adaptive systems appropriate to their life conditions.”

For many reasons US Middle East policy has failed to make lasting peace a reality. Early on in his administration, President Obama sent a message to the world that things will be different. By granting his first media interview to Al-Arabia Network based in Dubai and delivering a powerful speech in Cairo to the Muslim world he set the tone for things to be different. But, how much beneath the tactical surface would policy makers need to go in order to achieve a different, sustainable outcome. At the Washington summit this past August with President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Secretary Clinton and President Obama set a one year deadline for both parties to come up with a workable peace treaty. Is this approach any different than that of previous administrations and would it work? These are questions that Don, Said and I will be discussing during Peace Week this coming Wednesday September 15, at 5:00 PM (PST). Click here for details and to sign up.1. Are the 2 parties ready to step fully into these negotiations, or is this Washington’s own timing leading to mid-term elections?2. It is true that Prime Minister Fayyad is doing a good job with making sure that Palestinian security forces in the West Bank are well trained, but is that enough for Israel to pull back its 10,000 troops?3. With all right wing opposition in Israeli opposing for the settlement freeze, can the Palestinians trust that Israel has good intentions at the table?4. Most importantly, are all parties, including the US looking at these negotiations from a Natural Design perspective? From a value systems perspective? Do they take into account the Memetic contours and the lay of the land in both cultures? Or, are they coming to it from the traditional negotiations processes that failed to achieve tangible results like in Madrid, Oslo, and Camp David. The truth is whoever is at the negotiations table does not represent the full spectrum of value-systems and mindsets of their respective cultures. Why isn’t it a bottoms-up referendum on the future of their respective countries? Who’s really addressing what the moderates in both countries are looking for? This is something that the Center for Human Emergence Middle East has been deeply involved in for the last 5 years. We have uncovered and informed, through our field-tested framework, the thinking of over 200,000 in Palestine who are of the mindset that in order for negotiations to be successful and have collective support, the negotiators must be informed by real-time data from the trenches of the culture.Below is a reposting from a year ago of our call for a “Design Conference” and not a “Peace Conference”. Not much has changed in calling for the building blocks that form the foundation for a lasting peace.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a collision of “tectonic plates” — deep values system codes — that have created a logjam. It is this underlying logjam that generates continual surface-level blockages that erupt in conflict.

We propose a problem-solving methodology with the power, precision, and complexity to span over human groupings to construct the unique economic and political structures that overarch the mountains and valleys of those unique human groupings.

We need to see the patterns as through a prism — where all the various colors of worldviews are made visible, each with a different “tint” on the world. The goal is to understand the needs of all the mind-sets, so as to begin to craft “full-spectrum” solutions which are fundamentally different from those that a single perspective would offer.

Capacity to uncover the deeper dynamics within each society, as well as between societies.

Craft decisions and measure priorities not against the past, nor based on who is responsible for what;

Avoid the typical problem resolution systems such as majority rule, rule by the elite or by the wealthy, or rule by the so-called experts, or those that have military strength.

Defuse the ideologies that produce “us vs. them”

Avoid raising expectations which can be faulted.

Focus on who the people are who live in the region and what their resources are

Design a strategy to mesh people, geography, and resources together into a workable solution for all who live in that region.

Draw upon all of the solutions which are currently available (as well as many that haven’t been thought of yet). We often call these “scaffoldings of solutions”,

“The issue is less about democracy, rather the question is to design the best structures for meeting the needs of the people as they develop through the stages that are most natural to them; open, adaptive systems appropriate to their life conditions.”

The following article was written for the news agency Common Grounds and distributed widely throughout the world and the Middle East in many languages. This article briefly summarizes our work with the Build Palestine Initiative and serves as an open letter to the Palestinian leadership. Here’s a link for the article in Arabic

6th convention Fateh’s and the building of a nation

by Elza Maalouf

20 August 2009

SAN DIEGO – After its long-awaited Sixth Convention, Fateh has inched a bit closer toward building the institutions needed to establish an independent Palestinian state. In spite of the power jockeying, participants renewed their commitment to a two-state solution, and the voices calling for resistance through economic development outnumbered those wishing to keep the status quo. Fateh’s challenge now is to create a platform with new goals and a new interpretation of its charter, in order to become a movement that represents all Palestinians. In a true gesture of reconciliation, Fateh should extend an olive branch to Hamas and invite the movement to join in creating a new national platform.

It remains to be seen how effective the election of a younger generation of Fateh members will be in establishing a new national agenda, but the only way forward for Fateh is to boldly assume the responsibility for creating a developmental roadmap that will prepare all Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution from a position of strength.

The idea of a development roadmap was born based on the Center for Human Emergence in the Middle East’s work with third and fourth generation Fateh members over the last five years. We approached the problem using an innovative socio-political framework, such as the one that helped South Africa transition from apartheid.First and foremost, our research pointed to the enormous asymmetry in societal capacities between Israelis and Palestinians. This has been a principal cause for the failure of previously-attempted peace treaties. The Palestinians simply did not have the capacity to self-govern or to develop a unified vision of a future state. Internal clashes generated by extremists on both sides have also continued to fuel the conflict.

Our work focused on guiding third and fourth generation Fateh members in creating a distinctly different party — transitioning from one that was out of touch with the Palestinian people, to a party that will lead the entire nation in a state-building effort. Because we understood the significance of the Sixth Convention, we designed a pre-congress conference for 700 members of Fateh, which took place in February 2008. This conference provided a unique forum for Fateh members to debate the future of the party and send recommendations to their leaders. Our focus was not merely on the success of Fateh, but on the viability of a future Palestinian state, which should be President Abbas’ focus as well.

To shift the focus away from both intra-party fighting and the defeat of Hamas, we created a platform whereby members offered their best visions and frameworks for building a Palestinian state — a country designed by its own people, for its own people. It turned out that professional women and young party members in their twenties offered some of the best suggestions for nation-building. They were most aware of the important issues affecting their people.

In order for Fateh to guide the emergence of a Palestinian state, the participants presented a number of pragmatic recommendations most of which could be initiated despite the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation. These include: accountability from all public officials; the ending of corrupt practices among government bureaucracies; the establishment of world-class educational and healthcare systems; development of the agricultural and industrial sectors; the creation of an IT sector, whereby young people could find gainful employment; and the instituting of a broad spectrum of socio-economic programmes essential to a thriving state.

Based upon the results of our pre-conference event — and the challenges that the outcome of the Sixth Convention present — President Abbas should immediately hold a “nation-design conference” that would call on the brightest minds in Palestine and throughout the world to create a developmental roadmap for Palestine. This would be informed by the needs and aspirations of all Palestinians, and would put forth a vision of a thriving region. It would honour the past while building the infrastructure necessary for the younger generation to emerge socio-economically and overcome the region’s historic conflict. For moderates in Israel, a plan such as this would provide the assurance they need to enter into a partnership of mutual peace and prosperity, while quelling Hamas’ and Likud’s extremist positions.

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* Elza S. Maalouf is an Arab-American futurist and cultural development specialist focusing her work on societal, business and political reform in the Arab world. She is the CEO and co-founder of the Center for Human Emergence Middle East, a research and strategic design centre that uses the emerging science of value-systems to address various challenges in the region. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

In light of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, our Palestinian partner sent me this heartfelt letter expressing her pain about the death of innocent people, yet remaining optimistic about a fresh start with President-Elect Obama.

“Habibti Elza,

After reading your letter to Obama and while watching the news about Gaza today, I felt like sending something to Obama too, by using the alphabets of the word PALESTINE.

Deema Al-Shawa”

PALESTINE

P.PresidentObama, Dear “Abu Hussien” that’s how we call you in the Middle East.

A.An Actionby you would make a historical difference! Your words: “CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA!” brought back our lost hopes & faith in the change that might come to the Middle East, through a better American political policy.

L.LetPeace Rule the Globe and bring back the missing justice.

E.Encourageour Palestinian vision for a better future & development, Palestinian young people are educated enough to handle it very well.

S.Saveour hungry poor children in Gaza and millions will pray for you. Save them from the unjustified non-stop Israeli harm and the non-sensed political conflicts. Dear Mr. President in our Palestinian case, supporting the basic human rights by such a leader like you, will be remarked with a golden line in history.

T.Timehas come for us to be treated as humans! It’s almost 2009, 60 years of an unfair war, enough of erasing and neglecting our harmless Palestinian identity, kindly support our people, we do exist and we have rights. African Americans had suffered for years but today while celebrating your presidency HOPE is back! Justice will come after all to Palestine.

I.Initiatingaction for Cultural emergence in the Middle East by Enhancing “the Center for Human Emergence” through its SDI needed mission, will definitely help the US administration in implementing a better political, social and economical international transformation. Dr. Don Beck and CEO Elza Malouf our American Heroes will help you as much as they helped us, if you just give them the chance.

N.NO! For more genocides by the Israeli army, PALESTINE is screaming for your HELP!

E.Enoughof taking sides! HO HO HO!! The Israeli Santa did deliver his bombs as a Christmas gift to the Palestinian Innocent children in Gaza, documented 27.12.2009. Merry Christmas Mr. President & Happy New Year.

By Deema Shawa.

Deema is a founding member of the Palestine Integral Committee at the Center For Human Emergence-Middle East . Since 2005, she has been leading the efforts to promote “Build Palestine Initiative” among young Palestinian leaders.

Maysa Gayyusi, a dynamic Palestinian community leader, sent us this letter expressing her renewed faith in a potential independent Palestinian state after the election of Mr.Obama.

“Dear Elza,

You said it all to President-elect Obama. You have no idea how high the expectations are among young Palestinians. Words that Obama said that “we can, and we will” inspired many youth here to see the light at the end of the tunnel; and to realize that change is doable.

I was in NY, in Time Square when the result of the elections were revealed, you have no idea how loud I screamed cheering for Obama. My friends told me the next day, “Maysa, you acted like a crazy kid. You jumbled and yelled”. I replied why not, A drowning person will not think twice before grabing a stick handed to rescue him. This is how I feel, young Palestinians as well as Israelis are desperately looking for the day when they can leave the conflict behind and look for better future.

My brother kept asking me for an Obama shirt, saying “Maysa I don’t want anything from you except a shirt with Obama photo.” I brought him one that he wears to impress his friends!

I hope that your words will find their way to Mr. Obama, and that he will put the Israeli- Palestinians issue among his priorities.

Let me know how I can help,

Regards,

Maysa “

This is the letter that we sent to President-Elect Obama: http://humanemergencemiddleeast.org/open-letter-to-barack-obama.php

Maysa Gayyusi has been working with the Center For Human Emergence Middle East on the Build Palestine Initiative since 2005.

The CHE-mideast grassroots movement continues to grow. The Build Palestine Initiative that is lead by our Palestinian partners is reaching critical mass and is now influencing the direction of the entire Fatah movement.

Bethlehem-Maan News

Nov18, 2008

On Tuesday Nov. 18th approximately 80 Fatah leaders , from a number of Palestinian provinces met to discuss challenges facing the party ahead of the hugely anticipated 6th Convention. The Meeting took place at the Women’s Union Hall under the slogan “Taking Responsibility for the Emergence of Fatah Movement.” Nafiz Rifaee presided over the conference along with Abdel Majeed Suwaiti and Thabet Swaitat. Also present were leaders representing the various sectors and committees of Fatah in the West Bank andGaza.

Emphasis at the meeting was placed on the need to sustain the role that the Fatah Movement is achieving with the Palestinian National Project with its focus on internal reforms as well as open communication with the Executive committee. The attendees acknowledged the prolonged difficulties the movement has gone through and the need to reform it at this critical juncture in the absence of effective structures to implement such reforms.

The speakers emphasized the following points:

§Sending recommendations to expand participation in the 6th Convention by

including the young Generation.

§Specify what the members wish to see from this convention.

§Prepare action-plans and strategies of implementation after the 6th convention.

§Make sure all resolutions of the convention support the leading role that Fatah plays in the National Palestinian Plan.

The speakers emphasized the necessity for radical change within the party through internal elections that will enable the movement to continue its path toward freedom andNationBuilding. Emphasis was also placed on holding all elected officials of Fatah who contributed to the demise of the movement accountable for their actions.Attendees also vowed to hold transparent internal party elections away from personal agendas and nepotism.

Fatah leader Nafiz Rifaee declaredthat this meeting is part of a series of important meetings that started on Feb 2, 2008 where 700 Fatah members voiced their opinion about the 6th convention. These meetings have stressed the need to transform the movement and help it emerge.

Mr Rifaee added that the group will continue its meetings and will come up with a list of recommendations that will be presented to Ahmad Qurai (Abu Alaa’)- the head of the Annapolis negotiation team, and the Fatah official in charge of organizing the 6th convention—and to Mr. Hakam Balaoui , in charge of the organizing committee of the conference. These recommendations will also be presented through every channel possible to make sure the overall vision of the movement includes the third generation Fatah members who have been the torch bearers of the group for years.

Other speakers including Mohammad Taha Amin, the Secretary General of Fatah inBethlehem, Abdallah abu Hadid and Mousa Al Shaer, were supportive of Mr. Rifaee’s vision for change and transformation of the movement.

In an article published last week in Al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem, Nafiz Rifaee, a leading Palestinian mind who is bringing cultural and systems innovation to Palestine, asks why isn’t any Arab university mentioned on the list of the Top 500 Universities in the world. A recent study published by Shanghai Universities ranked European, American and 6 Israeli universities among the top universities in the world. Mr. Rifaee is calling on all Arab academics, politicians and business people to take a closer look at the problem. He says “We have some of the greatest minds in the world. Our young Arab men and women are eager to learn and be innovative; the question remains, are we providing them with the best education and technologies to help them excel?” adding ” our young generation is where we need to invest most. they are the tallest buildings we want to build, and the most precious resources we have.”

Nafiz Rifaee is the President of Bethlehem University Alumni Association. He is leading the Build Palestine Initiative sponsored and designed by the Center for Human Emergence-Middle East. He can be reached at nafizrifae@buildpalestine.org

For the first time, Dr. Beck will reveal certain aspects of Large Scale Psychology, (the new branch of psychology that he is introducing to APA in 2009) in particular the recognition of the master codes that shape whole societies and how to impact large scale systems with integral design engineering principles, processes and strategies. As you all know, Dr. Beck is virtually the “pathfinder” of master codes in large scale systems with applications in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world societies. Further, he will roll out the Assimilation-Contrast Effect (ACE) that describes how the Us vs. Them polarization forms, thus producing the “face of the enemy” in the other. This is the critical process that creates serious conflicts between tribes, empires, ideologies (such as Shia and Sunni) and even between the “Red” and “Blue” states in this country. The entire package is part of the Large Scale Psychology templates, illustrates how to defuse the conflict, build over arching superordinate goals, and find ways to integrate common interests beyond the rigid and dangerous borders and boundaries. The concept has been field-tested within many societies where a dangerous civil war was the only apparent option. Beck worked with Professor Muzafer Sherif while at the University of Oklahoma and was a graduate assistant at the Institute for Group Relations that produced the autokinetic physical judgment study and the world famous Robber’s Cave experiment.

Elza Maalouf will present the major application of Large Scale Psychology that they designed and continue to apply in Palestine: including how they are uncovering the master code that shapes the Palestinian society, and will give concrete details about the processes and strategies they are following to impact change/emergence. This will be a case study in the Natural Design framework and the application of the ACE technology both within Israel and within Palestine and between Israel and Palestine (Intra-Conflict and Inter-Conflict), while creating a compelling future vision – of Israel/Palestine as the Hong Kong of the Middle East or the Dubai of the Levant— that will benefit all and anticipate the next moves in the dangerous dance between the Middle East and the West.

We would appreciate you posting this announcement on your blogs, and/or forwarding it to people who might want to attend. Topic and date are listed below.

“Psychology at the Large Scale: the Design and Transformation of Whole societies”Sept 5, 2:00 – 3:30 pm

This presentation will feature Spiral Dynamics, a biopsychosocial and value system driven framework and illustrate its role in diagnosing and defusing “us -vs- them” polarity. It will identify eight different types or variations of worldviews, and will uncover the “DNA-like” Master Code that shapes cultural emergence, conflict, transitions, and transformation. It will describe the conditions for large scale societal change which will guide decision-makers to know what to do, when, in what manner, with which resources. Finally, It will address the critical issues with regard to nation-states, large cultural and global movements with a focus on a major NationBuilding design and application in Palestine.